In a Dec. 2 letter to New York Fed chair Dennis Hughes, Senators Jim Bunning, R-KY, and David Vitter, R-LA, asked him to explain the workings of the little-known Term Asset-Backed Lending Facility (TALF), which was authorized by the Federal Reserve Board in November 2008. The Fed got $20 billion in TARP funds to back $40 billion of TALF loans made to stimulate the economy.

But “there are troubling questions raised by [the] selection of certain participants in the program,” the letter said, including Loop Capital, a major donor to the Democratic Party.